IDFTA Conference 2000, New Zealand

Excitement is building for the upcoming IDFTA conference in Napier, New Zealand,
February 6-9, 2000.The Kiwis (New Zealanders) are looking forward to being our hosts and to
showing fruit growers from around the world their new high density orchards.Napier is in the
Hawke’s Bay district of the North Island, a district which includes 50% of the New Zealand
apple acreage.Most new apple plantings in New Zealand are on dwarfing rootstocks and include
new apple varieties such as Pacific Rose™, Pacific Beauty™, Southern Snap™and Pacific
Queen™which were developed in New Zealand.

Our New Zealand hosts are also looking forward to hearing and visiting with many of the most
experienced and knowledgeable growers and pomologists from around the world.Growers,
nurserymen and researchers in New Zealand as well as the New Zealand Fruit Growers
Federation are working hard to make IDFTA Conference 2000 a success.

The non-Kiwi participants should also be excited about interacting with fruit growers in New
Zealand and colleagues from around the world.Hearing and interacting with the speakers will
certainly be the height of the conference.A partial list of conference speakers, with their titles
paraphrased to keep them short, is as follows:

Tom Auvil (Washington, USA)....................“High Density Orchards”
Dr. Steve Blizzard (California, USA) ...........“Apples in California”
Doyle Fleming (Washington, USA).............“Experience with Orchard Systems”
Steve Hoying (New York, USA)..................“High Density Systems Trials in New York”
George Ing (Oregon, USA)..........................“Pear Production.”
Dr. Bill Johnson (New York, USA) ..............“New Geneva Apple Rootstocks”
Darrel Oakes (New York, USA) ...................“Apple Orchard Management”
Dr. John Palmer (New Zealand) ...................“High Density Systems in New Zealand”
Dr. Terence Robinson (New York, USA).....“Orchard Systems”
Dr. Stuart Tustin (New Zealand)..................“Tree Training Systems”
Kent Waliser (Washington, USA) .................“Apples from Warehouse to Marketplace”
Dr. Ian Warrington (New Zealand) ...............“Fruit Industry Global Perspectives”
Dr. Tony Webster (East Malling, UK) ..........“New Tree Fruit Rootstocks”
Dr. Bob Wertheim (The Netherlands) ...........“Review of Orchard Systems”
Allan White (New Zealand).........................“Globalization of Apple Varieties”
Jamie Kidston, Bruce Currie
and Rob Dawson (B.C., Canada) ................“High Density Orchards in British Columbia”

As of late September almost 150 participants from outside New Zealand, over 100 from the US,
have already registered for the New Zealand conference.It should be a wonderful educational
experience and a great success.Hope to see you there!